


The Wrecking Crew

by Durendal



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: X-Wing Series - Aaron Allston & Michael Stackpole, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Assassin-class Corvettes, Astromech droid, Dragon Spiral Squadron, Gen, Humour, In which Y-wing pilots act like stereotypical construction workers, Space Battles, X-Wing Fighter (Star Wars), Y-Wing Fighter (Star Wars), or at least an attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:20:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29077746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Durendal/pseuds/Durendal
Summary: In which the real danger isn't the turbolaser fire of an Imperial Assassin-class Corvette, but whether X-wing pilot Chessa Oto can stand the behaviour of a surly squadron of Y-wing pilots.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	The Wrecking Crew

**Author's Note:**

> Set slightly before Enemy Tolerated, but not by much.

0 BBY

Chessa Oto jerked in her cockpit as her X-wing came out of hyperspace. Glancing around, she could see her fellow Dragon Spiral Squadron pilots had arrived with her, alongside the Y-wings of the Wrecking Crew. 

“Convoy is in sight, as is their escort.” Chessa’s squadron leader, Asher Ulrand’s voice crackled over her comlink.

Chessa peered out of her cockpit canopy, seeing a line of BFF-1 bulk freighters flying along in a line. The ships themselves were about as dangerous as nunas, they were totally unarmed, not to mention sluggish and difficult to manoeuvre. They and the supplies they carried would be easy enough prey for the Wrecking Crew.

The problem, however, was the issue of their escort. A CR92a Assassin-class corvette ominously hung over the convoy. Such ships had a nasty reputation as starfighter killers, and with good reason. The quad laser cannons they fielded could shred through their shields with little difficulty, and the slower and less manoeuvrable Y-wings were at twice the disadvantage. Still, if they wanted to claim the convoy’s cargo for the Rebellion, it would have to be dealt with. 

The plan was to hit it hard and fast from two sides, bombarding it with their proton torpedo payloads. A single X-wing and Y-wing squadron each might not have been much, but to a vessel of the Assassin’s size, the hail of missile fire had the potential be devastating. Even the powerful shields of the corvette shouldn’t be able to replenish themselves fast enough after that. 

“I just hope my luck holds up,” Chessa murmured to herself, a trickle of sweat sliding down her brow. “Drexl, concentrate shields to maximum front, we’re going to be getting a lot of fire our way,” Chessa ordered her astromech droid. 

The red-domed droid chirped an affirmative, and Chessa could see on the viewscreens in front of her that her shields had been boosted. 

“Youse guys think ya can handle this? Might be a littler bigger than dose dinky little eyeballs ya usually deal with.” 

Sal Quartin, the squadron leader of the Wrecking Crew was half Moggonite and Chessa had noted his considerable gut during the briefing. The Wrecking Crew weren’t exactly the typical squadron of Rebel pilots to say the least. 

“My squadron can handle this mission just fine, Commander. Let’s see if we can say the same of yours,” Ulrand retorted, and Chessa could clearly picture him speaking through clenched teeth. 

“If youse say so, personally I reckon we coulda handled this on our own. We know how ta get things done and get ‘em done fast!” 

“Whadya say we wrap this up quick and be back in time for lunch? Sammiches ain’t meant to be eaten stale!” One of the other Wrecking Crew members, a Jenet named Zoldor Kraye spoke up. 

There were cries of “whoo!” and “sammiches!” at that, and Chessa winced at the loud cheers, she thought for a second she might go deaf. She felt a twinge of sympathy for her friend, Arra Sugi, her large Themian ears were twice as sensitive as her Human ones were. 

“Let’s show these Imp barves how the Wrecking Crew gets things done!” Another pilot, a Human woman named Nineaj Zelmint exclaimed, to more cheers. Chessa flinched again. 

Chatter over the coms was typically discouraged, but that was a rule the Wrecking Crew apparently didn’t care to enforce. Chessa might have been imaging it, but she swore she could hear Commander Ulrand grind his teeth over her comlink. 

“Lock S-foils in attack position,” Ulrand said in a highly strained tone of voice. 

One by one, the X-wings readied up for the fight that would soon start. It felt like flewts were flapping around in Chessa’s stomach, she was still unused to non-simulated combat missions, and now she was up against an Assassin-class corvette. She steadied her breathing and firmly gripped the steering yoke of her starfighter. 

The corvette had noticed the snubfighters making their approach, it was rapidly swinging around and its weapon batteries were beginning to glow as they charged up. 

“Head’s up, Dragons! Enemy fire incoming!” Commander Ulrand exclaimed from the front of the formation. 

Turbolaser bolts came whizzing past her cockpit, and Chessa gulped as one came dangerously close to one of her S-foils. Off to starboard, Chessa saw a laser bolt scrape the hull of Bowman’s X-wing, this one coming even closer, almost enough to lance through her cockpit. 

“Aw, _osik_! There goes _Kandosii’s_ dome!” The white-furred Devaronian snarled over the coms.

Chessa winced and Drexl let out a panicked hoot.

“It’ll be okay, I won’t let that happen to you,” Chessa soothed her astromech droid. If she had a hand free, she would have reached out behind her to Drexl, but that was impractical in the heat of combat. Instead, she thumbed the trigger on her control yoke and the wing-mounted laser cannons roared to life, spewing red hot energy. 

To either side, Chessa could see her wingmates getting their own shots off. Beedle, Tendra and Nat were in tight formation around her, their blasts flying alongside hers to slam into the side of the corvette. Not that it would do much good, the shields were too strong for their first volley, but then, it was just intended to soften them up a little. 

“Proton torpedoes away!” Tendra said as she fired her first pair of projectiles. 

A moment later, Beedle, Nat and then Chessa fired their own payloads, shortly followed by the rest of Dragon Spiral Squadron. Now that had more of an effect, the torpedoes exploding brilliantly as they impacted across the shields of the Assassin.

“Don’t let up, Dragons! Keep hitting ‘em hard so they can’t recharge their shields!” Commander Ulrand snarled as he fired again.

“Why don’t we shows ya how it’s done?” Quartin said, and Chessa could hear the grin in his voice. “Wreckin’ Crew, let’s smash ‘em!” 

The Y-wing squadron cheered again-and Chessa winced again-as they flew ahead, ready and raring to show off what they could do to the X-wing pilots. Evidently the Wrecking Crew had souped up the engines of their bombers to give them a little extra kick. A round of bright blue glowing projectiles shot forth from the Y-wings, not proton torpedoes, but proton bombs. Slower than torpedoes, but twice as mean, Chessa had seen just how destructive they could be on targets. 

As Chessa rolled hard to starboard to avoid another laser bolt, she saw once again just how powerful those proton bombs where. They seemed to have an even bigger effect than their missiles had, and the side of the Assassin was now showing visible damage. The hull was blackened and singed, parts of it even ripped open. A triumphant feeling started to well up in Chessa’s chest and a grin lit up her face. _We’re doing it!_ She thought, _We’re really taking down an Assassin-class Corvette!_

Chessa’s wingmate, Beedle, abruptly broke the com-silence. “I’m not seeing what all the fuss is about, this thing couldn’t hit the broad side of a-!”

“Watch out!” Chessa exclaimed as she banked hard to port. 

“Stang!” Beedle cursed as a shot struck one of his laser cannons, sheering it right off, along with a decent chunk of the wing. 

“Report! What’s the damage, Dragon Spiral Six?” Ulrand said.

“Just a scratch, Dragon Spiral Leader, I can keep going!” Beedle said, though Chessa could see that his flight pattern was unsteady. He kept jerking to starboard, not by much, but it was noticeable. 

“Negative! Break off, Dragon Spiral Six, you’ve taken too much damage!”

“But, sir-!” Beedle began, only to be quickly cut off. 

“That’s an order! Get to a safe distance, now!” Ulrand snapped, his tone making it clear the debate was over. 

“Yes, Commander,” Beedle said, his voice clipped. Moments later, he was unsteadily turning around and flying away. 

“Aww, I guess dis corvette was just a bit too much for ‘em!” Kraye teased, and Chessa felt a flash of annoyance. 

“They can’t help it, they’re all flash and no bang!” Zelmint added. 

Chessa gritted her teeth and did her best to block them out. She took out her frustration on the corvette, firing another pair of torpedoes at it. The continuous fire seemed to be doing some damage, the Assassin’s hull was blackened badly and its movements seemed sluggish.

“Someone take out it’s engines, we can stop it entirely! I wanna get dis done with quick, we ain’t getting’ paid overtime!” Quartin ordered as he made a run on its dorsal turbolaser cannons. 

“On it, Boss!” Zelmint replied as she swung around wide to open fire on the corvette’s stern. “Why don’t ya cram this up ya exhaust port!” Zelmint snarled as she unleashed another volley of proton torpedoes directly into the engines of the Assassin.

Now that certainly had an effect as the engine banks exploded brilliantly, taking out a good chunk of the ship’s rear end. Smoke was quickly venting out through the holes in the hull, and Chessa thought she could even make out a body or two amongst the debris. A chill ran up her spine, _Not the way I’d want to go_.

“Stick a fork in ‘er, cause she’s done!” Quartin whooped as he did a clumsy loop around the Assassin’s bridge, taunting the Imperials. 

“Now that that’s out of the way, shouldn’t you be disabling the freighters?” Commander Ulrand asked, exasperated by his fellow commander’s showboating. 

“Yeah, yeah, hold yer gualaars’! Wreckin’ Crew, time to finish the job, then get back for ebla beers!” 

Chessa had already muted her com-link by the time they had started cheering again. 

***

Yavin IV

“How’re you feeling, Beedle?” Arra asked, one arm wrapped around her reptilian friend.

They had arrived back at the Great Temple some time later. The rest of the mission had gone off without a hitch, and Dragon Spiral Squadron had bugged out after their services were no longer required. 

“Nothing hurt except my pride,” Beedle muttered, shaking himself loose from Arra’s hand. His head was bowed and he was gritting his teeth, not that Chessa could see past his beak.

“Be glad that’s all that was hurt, Inoso,” a voice from behind them said. They turned to see Commander Ulrand behind them. “We were very lucky, that was an inexperienced crew, must have been one of their first missions.” 

“What makes you say that Commander?” Nat asked.

Ulrand’s face was grave “No one died. Ordinarily an Assassin will give much higher casualty rates than that, thank the Force no one was even hurt.”

Chessa gulped and looked around her, seeing all of her fellow squadmates milling about the hangar. Marrow Bowman was talking the ear off the ever-stoic Weequay, Sev. The slightly pudgy Sullustan, Sant ibn Gunb, was with the only other Humans aside from Chessa, Hisasp Thayer and Ulen Orsalan. The Claantani former pirate with the cyborg eyes was running a hand over the blaster scoring on the side of his X-wing. It was chilling to think that next time one or more of them might not make it back. 

“I’ll see you at the debriefing, Dragon Spiral Squadron.” And at that, Ulrand pivoted on his foot and briskly marched off. 

“Encouraging as always,” Beedle muttered. 

Beedle jumped as a hand roughly clapped down on his shoulder. “Aw, don’t let ‘im get ya down!” Kraye exclaimed as he, Zelmint and the Wrecking Crew’s Xi’Dec member, Reeech Shogda. 

“Yeah, that was a mission well done and no one died! We’d call that a success!” Zelmint added. 

“So, hows about we celebrate wit a round of eblas?” Shogda said, rubbing all four of his insectoid hands together. 

“We’re supposed to-” Beedle began.

“Great, you’re buyin’!” Kroye exclaimed as he dragged Beedle off. “Ladies, droid, you comin’?” 

“Shard, not droid!” Arra said, but started walking off with them.

Chessa knew she’d probably cop some trouble with the commander when they didn’t show up for debriefing, but she would worry about that later. Right now, she just wanted to wind down.


End file.
